At practically the last minute, I was invited to a briefing at PDC on Windows 7. As exciting as it all sounded, I wasn’t planning on attending at all… but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to be one of the first to get a guided tour the hotly-anticipated followup to Widows Vista.

Since I’m not a short hop away from LA anymore, I actually took a bump off a flight last week to my kid sister’s wedding (the one who had her accident during PDC 2005) to get a free round-trip ticket from FL to CA. The very kind lady at USAirways Reservations worked for almost an hour to make it happen, but I’m on my way as we speak (I have to fly from Tallahassee to Charlotte to Philly to LA, which puts me in around 7pm tonight… a VERY long day). But I’m really excited to be able to cover a good portion of the action going on at PDC.

Speaking of ghosts of PDC past, my good friend, new Microsoftie, and former LonghornBloggerBrandon LeBlanc stumbled on a picture on the Microsoft PDC site that should have been burned. Apparently, it’s in rotation with a bunch of other pictures… and if you look closely, you’ll see someone who obviously didn’t have a woman to improve his fashion sense. Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself…

See the little blue squirrelly guy in the center, barely over a buck-sixty, in the world’s worst Hawaiian shirt? Yep, that’s me, at my first PDC in 2003. I’m pretty sure this was during one of the first Tech Blogger meetups, the Blogger BoF. Thanks to whomever posted this, for finding one of the worst pictures of me *ever*.

Anyone up for a little caption contest? The winner will get something from my PDC swag haul. Winner judged by me… keep it PG-13 folks. And keep it right here for more coverage of PDC 2008, featuring Live Mesh, Windows Strata, Windows 7, and .NET 4.0.